Friday, July 24, 2009

Having Austin here taught Devin some things about things with wheels. I think one of those things is don't listen to Austin if he tells you to drive down a steep bank in your little jeep. But, it also taught him that he's a pretty good bike rider. It's sorta his thing! So, after some pretty fancy riding with training wheels, he convinced us to take off the training wheels. Here's what happened...

We won a silent auction recently for a 2 night stay with dinner at a local, posh hotel. Ok, State College doesn't have any posh hotels. But, still. The room came with appetizers and wine. So, it counts. And, maybe State College does have posh hotels, and I've just never been there.

Anyway, long story short, we're looking into more of those silent auctions. We got a good deal!

But, we missed out on something. And, I won't lie. I'm jealous.

Trevor lost his tooth while he stayed overnight at his grandparents house the first day he was there. And, because we were gone for two nights, the tooth fairy came to see him at his grandparents house on the second night. So, I'm jealous squared.

Last night was the annual Candy, ahem Fireman's, Parade in Pleasant Gap. I'm going to call it the Wet Candy parade of 2009. It rained for the entire 20 minutes of the extra short fireman's parade. There was only 1 baton troupe brave enough to toss their batons high into the air. I don't understand baton troupes. Chicago has Irish dancers, and Pleasant Gap has baton troupes. I don't understand either. But, I like the bouncy hair of the Irish Dancers. And, the batons. I like the batons. I guess. Ok, I don't like the batons. I'm just confused by the whole thing. Seriously! Like last year, there were 20 baton troupes. Where did they all come from??

Anyway, I did a good thing. I bought rain coats to the Candy Parade. So, my little fellas bravely stood near the road, waving at the passing firetrucks and obscured Dairy Princesses, the old Lion's Club guys, and the local 4-H. And, while a lot of parade participants kept their candy to themselves, some tossed their sugary treasures onto the wet street and lawns. And, our candy haul was not huge by last year's standards, but it was good haul nonetheless. (A good, wet haul. I think I'll throw most of it out.)

One of the neighbors took shelter on Grandma and Grandpa's porch. I didn't know her, but she had a little boy with her. If I had to guess, I would say he was Devin's age. Maybe a little younger. He seemed mightily disturbed by the rain, and any attempt to get him to move off the porch to pick up a tootsie roll resulted in panicked little screams.

I made a note of this. And, I also helped gather candy. It's not that I wanted it, or even that I wanted my kids to have it. I just didn't want it to stay on the lawn. I needed to clean up the mess. So, I picked up a few handfuls. Devin must have noticed. I returned to the porch and dropped some of that candy into the bag of the kid who found rain disturbing.

And, Devin noticed. I know he noticed because he looked at me dropping that candy (his candy) into that kid's bag. Then, he looked into his bag where he expected me to drop that candy. Then, he destroyed that poor child with his super laser eyes. Burned him up right on the front porch in the rain. Poor kid.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I'm pretty sure that other parents have seen this and kindergarten teachers see it all the time. But, when Trevor started really reading, it was all of a sudden. He went from having to sound almost everything out to being able to read out loud almost without hesitation. I know it's common, but it's still magical!!

This morning, he said, "Hey mom, you want me to read to you from the back of my magazine?" He has a bunch of National Geographics. I said sure. He came over and read me a really sad statistic from an ad for car insurance and how they are trying to make driving safer for teens. And, we decided we were sad over the statistic, but happy about his reading skills.

On another note...

Have you ever picked blackberries? If you have, you know they're ready to be picked when they offer no resistance when you pull at them. And, Trevor's two front teeth are hanging by some sort of gossamer thread right now. And, he's waiting for them to get ripe like a blackberry before he picks them out. And, I feel like we have a long wait ahead of us before we get our first visit from the Tooth Fairy.

Friday, July 03, 2009

Jena is staying with for a few weeks this summer. On the way up, she had an accident. She tried to tell us in time, but it didn't work, and so I cleaned her up. And, for a few times after that when she didn't have an accident, I cleaned her up. Then, I called her mom and asked if she always cleaned her up. No, she said, but that won't keep her from asking. OK, I was done cleaning her up after that. I can't believe I did that cleaning up bit for as long as I did with my boys. It was really unpleasant!

A few days ago, she was in the bathroom, and when she was ready to be cleaned up, she asked me to help. I said no. I thought NO WAY! I'm so done with that. She insisted that I clean her up. She said, "I'm the queen. I'm the queen!" I said, a big fat p-sha.

It took the boys a little time to accept that Jena was going to be here for a little bit. At first, they were not making their mother proud at all. They just wanted her to leave and to stop touching their things (and above all, to stop screaming!) After about a week, though, she's made herself into a suitable playmate for both boys, but especially for Devin.

They've both been enjoying the little Jeep, and they've been enjoying it in such a way to highlight the fact that HE's a BOY and SHE's a girl. First off, Devin always drives. AND JENA ALWAYS LETS HIM. Then, there have been these little instances where if they were older, I know that he would be opening doors and picking up the tab. She was standing inside the fence, and he was on the sidewalk in his jeep. He pulled up, stopped, and said, "your ride is here!" And, SHE HOPPED RIGHT IN! She took the opportunity to drive another time, and she drove into the fence. Devin sorta groused that he would help, told her to scoot over (AND SHE DID) and got her unstuck. Then, he drove into a tree, got out and walked home, leaving Jena to fend for herself. That didn't highlight gender roles as much as it highlighted classic Devin behaviors.

On gender roles, Jena has surprised me with her girliness. We went to a rock and mineral show the other day. They had dusty old rocks and pretty shiny rocks made into jewelery. And, I spent all my time with Jena, looking at the jewelery. We passed by a clothing store with dresses in the window every day. And, when she noticed them, she exclaimed how pretty they were and how we just had to get one for me. So cute. I think I'm going to take her out for a manicure or something today and act like a girl myself. I had forgotten what it was like!

On another note, I'm really sad about the untimely passing of Billy Mays. I'd blogged about him before, surprised that Trevor knew who he was, and how he had convinced both my children that *I* needed a big city sliders hamburger cooker for my kitchen. Trevor did indeed know who he was. And, he and I watched Pitchmen last night on the Discovery Channel, and Trevor cried himself to sleep. He grief was real and sad.

Also, Trevor's teeth still haven't fallen out. The dentist said to just wait. They will.